My uncle is looking at buying a house in hamilton near Main and Dundurn. The plan is I will rent it while I'm in school, then rent out two rooms to share the rent. But he's a bit concerned about when I leave (in 2 yrs) if he will be able to rent it out. Can anyone give me good feedback if this is an ideal spot to rent for a student? It's on the direct bus route to school which is a huge plus, and it's about a 25 minute walk if I really wanted the exercise.

A) Nicest uncle of all time.
B) Try and find something closer to campus, it will ALWAYS be rented out then. (within 10-15 min walk)

It's actually one of the better spots I can think of; grocery store, food, convenience store, not that physically close to bars that there would be a safety issue but close enough by bus that getting to one of those places isn't a big deal (Locke, Hess, Downtown), and close to a lot of medical facilities. I don't think you'll have trouble getting rid of it. Only issue is that a lot of new students are afraid of anything that isn't in or around Westdale, maybe market towards returning students

why is westdale so popular?

i saw the map route and its like 30 plus minutes walk to school! that is far. plus, from what i heard, taking the bus is a pain because the bus is always full from people living east of westdale.

so why is it so popular?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

why is westdale so popular?

i saw the map route and its like 30 plus minutes walk to school! that is far. plus, from what i heard, taking the bus is a pain because the bus is always full from people living east of westdale.

so why is it so popular?

Westdale is the community in which McMaster resides in, it's definitely not 30 minutes.

Because most students in Westdale live in between the village core and the University. Considering walking across the university campus from one end to the other can take 10+ minutes, it's not that far. There are some people who live further, but overall it's a nicer neighbourhood, and it's still within cycling distance. If you're worried about buses being jammed packed, you might as well not bother with anything west of Queen, since often last year during the morning rush that was the last stop where the bus could take more people.

i have lived near main and dundurn for the past 2 years and continue to live there for my final year. like RyanC said, i do like the area because it's close to everything. you have fortinos, shoppers, a walk in clinic, 3 tim hortons around you, a vet and all the major bus routes pass by there. OH and lcbo and the beer store is like a 10-15min walk away. besides, there's a strip of student houses on dundurn right across the plaza and if it wasn't a good place to rent houses, i doubt the company who started those student houses would continue doing so.

Anywhere within a 20 min walking distance of MAC he will have no trouble finding people to rent the house. Put it on the MAC housing site with a decent price and he will have plenty of offers!

Sounds like a good deal.

I live directly at main / dund. The plaza across the street is great plus thers a 24 hour wimpys nearby/tims. Living that far isn't that bad cause in the morning many buses pass by and you just walk out and one comes every ~5 mins. It is also better because most of the morning busses are usually full even when it hits dundurn so by the time you go to king/main it'll be full. About the house quality along Dundurn not so sure. You'd have to head towards York or other way towards the mountain not sure how good the quality is. (Hint closer to mountain = closer to lcbo)

side note, if your rent is fair for the room size and house quality someone will eventually rent.